CHICAGO—According to a recently released report from Datamonitor, “The Future of Sweeteners: Consumer Insight and Product Opportunities,” U.S. consumer reliance on sugar and other caloric sweeteners is double the global average, accounting for 17.1% of their total energy intake. Germany and the Netherlands tie for second at 13.7%.
“As a source of energy, our love affair with anything sweet continues as we rely heavily on sugar and sweeteners,” notes Katrina Diamonon, consumer analyst, Datamonitor. “The United States is dependent upon sugar to keep going rather than more-nutritious foods such as cereals. U.S. energy from cereals is less than half that of the global average.”
U.S. consumers currently tend to focus more attention on cutting fat out of their diet rather than sugar. Some other countries have a much higher collective attention paid to the amount of sugar they consume. In the United Kingdom, 37% of consumers report that they pay a great deal of attention to the amount of sugar they consume. In Australia, that number climbs to 40%.
However, more U.S. consumers have begun basing product-purchasing decisions on nutritional criteria, with 51% using nutritional information on product packaging to make food and drink choices—a number that exceeds the global average of 44%. According to Datamonitor, this suggests consumers may be building awareness of their need to curb sugar intake and pay greater attention to nutritional choices.
As more people begin paying a higher degree of attention to the amount of sugar they consume, alternatives like stevia—a natural, calorie-free sweetener—are leading the way versus artificial sweeteners. As noted by Confectionerynews.com, Mintel has found that more than 100 stevia-containing products have been released in the United States this year—and progressively more are on the way. Mintel anticipates sales of stevia-sweetened products to hit $2 billion by 2011.
However, stevia still faces an uphill climb as formulators work to mitigate off-flavor issues—and deal with its high price tag, something that can be attributed to its early stage of market development.